Weather - Cold. -2 this morning. Will get near zero. Luckily the roads are basically dry. So not much ice about. Also cooler now further south. Odessa maybe 5 or 7. Donetsk 3 or 4.

Footie -An excellent win by Dynamo last night in Porto. 0-2. They can still qualify if they can win their final game, at home against Maccabi.I think they are favorites in that game. So good chances )) Shaktar play tonight, against Madrid! In Lviv. They can't qualify for the final stages, but can qualify for the Europa league if they stay in 3rd place in the group.

Last edited by Nelson on Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:30 am; edited 3 times in total

http://tyzhden.ua/News/152320"And in the area of Sisogo yesterday at 21.00 military collision occurred, in which Ukrainian fighters drove the enemy from their positions dense fire from small arms," ​​- said in a statement."In general, from evening to morning, terrorists opened fire 18 times in the direction of our positions," - summarized in the headquarters.

Breaking down Chelsea's tiebreaker scenarios in Group G of the Champions Leaguehttp://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2015/11/24/9795518/chelsea-champions-league-group-g-tiebreaker-scenario===this article is written from the Chelsea point of view, but covers Dynamo's options also. Basically - Dynamo have to win at home v Mac Tel Aviv. They have good chances to do so. If they win, they are through. If they win, and the Chelsea-Porto game is a draw, Dynamo will qualify top of the group on goal difference. Otherwise, if either Porto, or Chelsea win at Stamford Bridge, then Dynamo will qualify second - if they win. Any win will do. That's what I think, having read this article.

Shaktar - well they cannot qualify for the playoffs. But they can qualify for the Europa League. They play Real Madrid at home. They should lose. But Malmo, tied with Shaktar on 3 points should also lose at home to Paris SG. So - as Shaktar have the better head-to-head , I think they would qualify - that is - if both teams lose, as I would predict.

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/11/25/7090137/At night in the area ATO killed one soldier, wounded 8 - headquartersWednesday, November 25, 2015, 12:49One day in the area of counter-terrorist military operations 1 killed and 8 injured.This at a traditional briefing on Wednesday, spokesman for the Presidential Administration Andriy Lysenko ATO."For the past day as a result of active hostilities, we lost one soldier, 8 more were injured," - said Lysenko.Ukrainian Pravda====Sad. The deaths continue from Putin's mad wars.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would not enter into a military conflict with Turkey after it shot down Russia's warplane.

As reported by Censor.NET citing Dozhd TV channel, this was announced by Interfax on Wednesday, Nov. 25.

"We are not going to war with Turkey, our attitude towards the Turkish people has not changed, we have questions regarding the actions of the current Turkish leadership," Lavrov said.

He says that Russia has always sought to establish a practical and pragmatic relationship with Turkey.

Russia will reconsider relations between the countries.

"I am confident that the friendly relations between the Russian and Turkish people do not depend on the actions of certain politicians, but as far as the current stage of our relations is concerned, those agreements we concluded with the Turkish government sitting now in Ankara, as the president said, we will seriously reevaluate and rethink everything that we have between our countries through the lens of the attack against our aircraft," Lavrov said.

Ministry of Finance of the United States has expanded the list of sanctions on Syria, in particular, has made ​​the bank "Russian Financial Alliance" and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Sanctions imposed for contacts with the Syrian government and public institutions, which the US declared illegal.

From individuals to the list included three other people - the citizens of Syria and Cyprus. Among the legal entities in the list includes six companies in Syria, Cyprus and Russia, including bank "Russian Financial Alliance." The list of sanctions came Hudsotrade Limited company with offices in Moscow and Cyprus.

Recall November 16, leaders of the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy came to a consensus that sanctions against Russia will continue until full implementation of the Minsk Agreement.

Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated due to situatsieyv Ukraine. At the end of July 2014 the EU and the United States from the point of sanctions against certain individuals and companies have moved to the measures against whole sectors of the Russian economy, in particular the defense industry and high technologies.

Four patrol police officers have been fired in Odessa for anti-government content in social networks.

Censor.NET reports citing the press service of the National Police of Ukraine.

According to the report, the police officers are charged of commitment to separatism. The official investigation is underway into five more patrol police officers.

The official investigation carried out by the National Police Directorate countering cyber-crimes have established that four police officers were deliberately posting information on their accounts in social networks including videos, articles, pictures, which contradicted the moral and ethical values of a Ukrainian law enforcement officer.

The officers of the patrol police on Odessa have explained that they had received information from the pro-separatist sources. At the same time, the reasons which pushed the police officers to spread such content were not considered sufficiently substantiated.

Addressing a cabinet session Nov. 25, Yatseniuk said the gas consumption in Ukraine has dropped by 20% due to reforms, subsidies tariffs and energy-saving programs.

Naftohaz Ukrayina company head Andry Kovolev said recently that there is no need in the Russian gas as Ukraine has considerable reserves in its underground reservoirs and buy what it needs from European suppliers.

Ukraine on Wednesday barred Russian passenger aircraft from flying across its territory amid a spiralling trade war, as tensions mounted over a continuing power blackout in Russian-annexed Crimea.

Kiev’s ban on Russian overflights came as Russia’s gas supplies to its neighbour were again halted. Moscow said Ukraine had failed to make necessary prepayments — but Kiev insisted it no longer needed Russian gas and could get through winter without it................

The court hearing on Nov 23 in the trial of two Russians captured in May 2015 in eastern Ukraine demonstrated yet again what an uphill battle the men’s defence lawyers will have to convince anybody that their clients, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, were not active Russian military intelligence officers [GRU]. Efforts at previous hearings to claim that the men had been pressured or even tortured into presenting themselves as GRU officers fail to explain why they told this to everybody, including their compatriots during one to one conversations.

The court on Monday began with a video clip showing well-known talk show presenter Savik Shuster speaking with the men in their hospital wards. Shuster does not explain whether the men were asked if they wished to speak with him, and the ethics of showing their interviews on television can be questioned. They do not give the impression of speaking under duress, and say nothing that does not correspond with the video which Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] has demonstrated. Both state that they were on duty in Ukraine in their capacity as Russian GRU spetsnaz officers.

Shuster asks Aleksandrov if he is a terrorist. The latter replies that he is just an intelligence officer, that he was simply obeying an order and he really wants to go home. Yerofeyev was asked whether he would prefer an honest, open trial in Ukraine or to be exchanged as a prisoner of war and return home. Unsurprisingly, he was emphatic that he wanted to go home.

Yerofeyev’s lawyer Oksana Sokolovskaya demanded publicly that Shuster appear in court and explain on what grounds he had “interrogated” the men.

Thus far, the evidence in court is based on the SBU tapes made two or three days after the men were captured, and while they were still in hospital. The defence strongly opposed their inclusion in the file material, however there were interesting differences as to why. During the first hearing, both men asserted that the tapes should not be considered as they had been under heavy medication. Yerofeyev had, in the past, only ever said that he was put under pressure. On Nov 19, however, he asserted that he had been tortured.

Even if we assume that the men did not give their stories voluntarily to Shuster, they confirmed the same details on many other occasions. .

The men were visited in hospital on May 20 by representatives of the OSCE Monitoring Mission who pointed out that they spoke to them “without the presence of Ukrainian authorities” and that both had said that they were Russian military servicemen on a reconnaissance mission. They were also seen by the International Red Cross who did not express any concern.

They also spoke with Sergei Krivenko, a well-known Russian human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Council under Russia’s President In his report , he stated that Sergeant Aleksandrov and Captain Yerofeyev had denied Russia’s claim that they were no longer in military service. He himself pointed out that the conditions were good, with both men having separate rooms, which were clean and bright. Neither men made any complaints about the conditions and they categorically denied any form of torture or physical pressure on them since their arrest, as claimed by Russian television. They asked for help in contacting their families as all phone numbers that they had were either blocked, or didn’t answer. Their main concern, Krivenko said, was that they were being prevented from contacting their families, and they were asking Krivenko and the Human Rights Council to help.

All of this coincided with the report by Pavel Kanygin from the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta who first spoke to the men on May 22, who told him in detail about the reconnaissance work they were engaged in as Russian servicemen. He visited them again at the end of the month. He explained that he had not planned to take any photos, but the men asked him to, explaining that it was only through such visits that they could make any contact with their families.

It was interesting that during one of the hearings, which are taking place in the presence of the Russian consul Alexei Gruby, the prosecution’s decision to provide the men with protection was read out. Such protection was needed, the decision stated, because their lives could be in danger from radical Ukrainians and from the Russian security service. Both men had also made written applications for protection.

The defence asserted that this was ‘inadmissible evidence’ and should not be included. It did not provide any arguments, and presiding Judge Mykola Didyk responded that the court would decide whether evidence is inadmissible..................

Today in Kyiv the activists seized C14 lobby Podolsky TVM police. This police station was discovered documents showing the continuation of illegal surveillance and harassment of activists by the repressive bodies Avakov.

Activists chained themselves to the walls of the premises police soon require Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and his deputy Basil Pascali, which is associated with the organization of illegal surveillance and harassment.

Activists also hung on the stand C14 MIA those individuals who really should look for a modern police instead of soldiers maydanovtsev and ATO, which wants to deal nelyustrirovannoe management apparatus of the old power station.

"At the police station wanted to stand as the most dangerous terrorists placed a list of twenty people. Among them, almost all the participants in the revolution, and many current employees of the Interior Ministry of the regiment that participated in the NSS, who fought in the village of Lugansk under Gorlovka and near Volnovakha. It Sergei Bondar, Yatsinyak Markin, Malec Nazar, Voitko Alexander, Kirill Babentsov, Eugene Karas. It mentioned in the list of repressive Igor Shiloh - platoon leader Kulchytsky battalion, which was among the first volunteers for the war. Cyril Babentsov - head of the department, who fought in the sand, wounded Donetsk airport, took part in intelligence operations near the village of Lugansk. Alexander Voitko - a volunteer regiment of Interior Ministry employee, who for over a year taking part in the ATO, previously worked as a journalist on international affairs to the "Channel 5". Eugene Karas - a soldier of the battalion "Harpoon", against which fabricate the case as a party to the assassination attempt on the late Oles Elderberry, "- said in a statement.

Military expert Konstantin Mashovets believes that the conflict in the Donbass can be frozen because of the failure of the Minsk agreements. It is reported by "Apostrophe".

"The situation in the Donbass, in the long run, will remain the same. That is a stalemate. If progress with the implementation of the Minsk Agreement drags on, the conflict in the east of Ukraine may be frozen. Because right now, none of the parties can not fulfill the prescribed points in Minsk agreements ", - he said.

However, Mashovets not preclude the liberation of the occupied regions of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

"If the Russian Federation will cease to support the terrorists in the Donbass, from units of the antiterrorist operation is sufficient forces and means in order to crush the resistance fighters and regain control of the temporarily occupied part of the Donbass. But for such a decision needed the political will of official Kiev ", - he explained.